Again, let everyone understand how serious and tragic the final consequences of a drifting life are. In its early stages the gravity of drift is rarely ever seen. It’s only when it has run its full course that we see the disastrous result. Then we realize it’s as deadly as the most blatant sin.

A ship can be just as effectively wrecked by drifting as by running into an obstacle on its charted course. For the masses of people who make moral shipwreck of their lives by “dragging sin to themselves with cart ropes” (see Isaiah 5:18), there are many more who reach the same tragic goal by simply letting their ropes loosely slip off the dock.

There’s a great story in the Old Testament which powerfully demonstrates this point. When Lot selected the lush pasture lands of the Jordan for himself, he was well aware of the evil reputation of the cities of the plain. Even in his wildest dreams he never thought of making Sodom his home. Yet that was the end he finally reached by gradual and seemingly innocent steps.

In five grim sentences the story of his moral drifting is summed up. “He chose the valley of the Jordan” (the location of Sodom); “he moved his tent as far as Sodom”, “he lived in Sodom”; “he sat in the gate of Sodom” (that is, he became one of its most influential citizens). And when the insistent angels urged hem to leave this den of corruption, he had become so callous that we read, “He lingered in Sodom.” In Lot’s ruined home and blasted soul we see the end of drift. (Genesis 13:10, 13:12, 14:12, 19:1, 19:16)